Idiom for paying a price without any gain
You won't find this in dictionaries, and I suspect it translates literally into other languages:
being over before it began
"It was over before it began."
Minimalism wasn't a real idea - it ended before it started.
Sol LeWitt
Link
Down the drain, according to Cambridge Dictionary:
If work or money is or goes down the drain, it is spoiled or wasted
Attribution:(Definition of “down the drain” from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)